It occurs to me that my problem is that lessons on productivity and best practices I knew from my computer programming days I fail to apply to learning a language. Every day, I am trying to reinvent the wheel.

To make things easier on me, I need to

Design a realistic schedule

Learn only those things you need right now (just in time)

Mature the process by documenting it and incorporating lessons learned

KDA and the FLYLady both encourage me to have consistent routines. Waking up wondering “Gee, what tangent will I wander off on today?” isn’t smart.

I am always surprised that my goofing off with my blog leaves me too tired to do the real important and urgent studying.

I know about Specific Measureable Action-oriented Realistic and Time-based goals. I write out lists of things to do and rank them into a priority matrix (Important/Unimportant … Urgent/Not Urgent) I always seem to end up with too many tasks on my list, prefer doing the “easy ones” that are actually unimportant/not urgent, and try to tackle too much at once. My brain comes up with these HUGE projects to do, many many of them. Then the next day, more ideas, more projects, more distractions. Never getting to the CORE skills that will help me, which is the Korean Digital Academy material.

Brian from ADD1Challenge says that lack of consistent motivation is the key problem most language learners face when they discuss their biggest struggles.

I was very excited when I heard about ADD1Challenge many months ago. Language learners group together to support each other in a community with a common goal: 15 minute conversation in 3 months.

It reminds me of setting a goal to exercise, then having a friend you meet with to walk. You can support each other, talk about your problems, learn from each other, and draw energy. You don’t want to let down your friend, so you go walking even if you aren’t really feeling motivated, and eventually it becomes a habit.